At Tuesday's Gaiety premiere of John B. Keane's Moll, half the audience seemed to be hugging itself in dread/anticipation of Frank Kelly - you'll know him from Hall's Pictorial Weekly or perhaps his recent work with Glenroe or (oh, all right) as liver-spotted dirty-priest archetype Father Jack Hackett losing the run of himself and lapsing into a rabid cacophony of "feck, drink, girrrls".
Kelly was free to take the gig because Glenroe is taking a summer breather. He wasn't the only soapster on a sabbatical; another familiar TV face, Maria McDermottroe, playing the lead role, admitted she would barely have a minute to herself between now and the resumption of the Co Wicklow grim fandango. She's off to do Kevin's Bed at the Abbey as soon as Moll wraps next month. Joining the cast in the Gaiety bar were Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke, whose early exit was, we hope, precipitated by some top level State crisis rather than any inclination to wimp out.
Looking inordinately pleased with herself as she sipped wine with actor husband Malcolm Douglas was thespian-turned bestselling novelist Kate Thompson who, with shiny-eyed glee, revealed she has more or less packed in all that pottering about on stage to concentrate on her scribbling. Novel number four has just been handed into publishers Bantam, while her third dispatch is expected in the bookshops next summer.
We can only assume Kate next plans to dally with full rock'n'roll hedonism. Recently she hired the penthouse suite at the Clarence Hotel to rollick with chums who supported her literary career in the early days, a display of excess worthy of owners U2, we think.
Andrew's Lane Theatre boss Pat Moylan came over all mysterious when queried about her upcoming project, a movie adaptation of Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy. Pat is producer, while long-time sparring partner Peter Sheridan has agreed to direct and a smattering of Hollywood "big names" are being courted. Who they? We won't tell. Or, rather, Pat won't tell. She would only reveal vague plans to fly to New York on Thursday to check out some LA actors clamouring for the lead role. All very hush hush.
Up from Listowel to represent John B. Keane was son Billy, who explained that his father remained rather more concerned with the outcome of this weekend's Cork-Kerry Munster football final than his currency in Dublin theatrical circles. So serious does the clash of rivals weigh on the playwright's thoughts that he will retreat to the solitude of Dirragh bog in north Kerry next Sunday, turn on the car radio and, too anxious to imbibe the transmission in its entirety, go for a walk.
Adding a frisson of vaudeville chic - and a preposterously lurid dickie bow - to proceedings on the night was piano-man Professor Peter O'Brien who plans to take a coterie of Irish jazz musicians to Prague in the summer.